Archive for April, 2018

House prices stayed flat in March of 2018, according to data from the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index™.

This past month was the first time outside of a recession that the March composite index wasn’t up at least 0.2 percentage points from February and the first time outside of a recession when March indexes were only up for four of the 11 metropolitan markets.

The Toronto region was flat, and six other markets were down for the month.

Vancouver’s house price index increased — its 13th month-over-month increase in the past 15 months, taking prices to a new high. In comparison, the Toronto market was flat in March and over the past 15 months has gone down 7.3 per cent from its house price peak in July of 2017. In Toronto, however, its condo segment has remained unchanged since July.

The increase in Vancouver was the main reason the house price index stayed flat in March and didn’t decline overall.

“Without Vancouver, the composite index would have declined in March, and in five of the six preceding months,” National Bank economist Marc Pinsonneault said in a research note.

Vancouver’s index is expected to see more increases over the coming months. The average Vancouver region sale price was a record $906,896 in March.

Outside of Vancouver and Toronto, other markets continue to vary. Winnipeg, Quebec City, and Victoria all showed increases in March, but Montreal, Hamilton, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Halifax, and Edmonton were all down. In Ontario, Barrie, Guelph, Brantford, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Oshawa, and Sudbury all showed declines from last July.

Hamilton has particularly declined, dropping 5.9% cumulatively since August of 2017.

The March 2018 house price index was notable for two other reasons: it’s the smallest 12-month rise since May of 2016, and it’s the ninth consecutive deceleration from the record 14.2% of last June.

According to Pinsonneault, the flat reading in March reflects that both the Toronto and Vancouver housing markets have begun to flatten out.

“The decline was the most obvious in Toronto,” he wrote. “This drop was likely triggered by Ontario’s implementation of the 15 per cent [foreign buyer tax] followed by stricter rules for qualification for a mortgage and a rise in mortgage rates.”

Pinsonneault wrote that we could see national home prices remaining relatively even in the coming months.

A TD Bank commentary on the March house price index noted that mortgage rates have recently fallen, making the overall cost of ownership less expensive for buyers.

TD Economics analyst, Sonny Scarfone, provided further analysis to the Canadian Press.

“Markets experiencing a decline in home prices are facing a rising inventory of homes for sale on the market, following what appears to have been a number of years of over building,” Scarfone wrote.

“Meanwhile, home price pressures remain the strongest in cities facing tighter conditions — as a low number of homes for sale on the market has put the bargaining power in the hands of the seller. This is particularly true in Calgary and the single-family home market in Toronto. However, these cities also have a record number of new homes currently under construction, which should help alleviate some supply pressures in the coming months.”

April 2018 won’t be seeing an interest rate increase the Bank of Canada announced this week.

On April 18, 2018, the Bank of Canada (BOC) decided to hold its key interest rate at 1.25% but warned of hikes to come in the future. They cited the Canadian real estate market as a factor in this decision.

“Slower economic growth in the first quarter primarily reflects weakness in two areas,” BOC wrote in its release.

“Housing markets responded to new mortgage guidelines and other policy measures by pulling forward transactions to late 2017. Exports also faltered, partly owing to transportation bottlenecks. Some of the weakness in housing and exports is expected to be unwound as 2018 progresses.”

The mortgage guidelines and other housing policy measures were referenced as well in the March 2018 BOC announcement.

The lack of change means that those with variable-rate mortgages, or those who are up for mortgage renewal, have more time to lock in to a fixed rate if they so choose before interest rates increase again.

The recent quarterly MNP consumer debt index survey found that 43% of respondents said they are already feeling the effects of higher interest rates in Canada. 51% said they fear the rising interest rates could affect their ability to pay down debt. One-third of the respondents said the rising interest rates could possibly push them toward bankruptcy.

One thing BOC made clear in the April 18 announcement is that more interest rate increases are coming.

“Some progress has been made on the key issues being watched closely by Governing Council, particularly the dynamics of inflation and wage growth,” BOC stated.

“This progress reinforces Governing Council’s view that higher interest rates will be warranted over time, although some monetary policy accommodation will still be needed to keep inflation on target.”

Despite the housing market cool off in the beginning of the year, BOC expects inflation and wage growth to pick up the slack in the coming months.

Experts are predicting there will be more interest rate increases in 2018. The next BOC announcement is scheduled for May 30.

GeoWarehouse can help you identify new real estate leads and opportunities even with increasing interest rates. Our tools include accurate, up-to-date, accessible property information that makes you the expert.

The Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price Index™ was unchanged in March – the first time outside a recession when the March composite index was not up at least 0.2 percentage points from February and the first time outside a recession when March indexes were up for only four of the 11 metropolitan markets of the composite index – Victoria (1.0%), Vancouver (0.5%), Winnipeg (0.5%) and Quebec City (0.1%). The index for Toronto was flat. Indexes for the other six markets were all down on the month: Montreal −0.2%, Hamilton −0.3%, Calgary −0.4%, Ottawa-Gatineau −0.7%, Halifax −1.0%, Edmonton −1.3%.

The rise of the Vancouver index was the 13th in 15 months, taking it to a new high. In recent months its gains have been smaller, consistent with the relaxation of the market reported by the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board. The Toronto index is down 7.3% from its peak of last July. The raw (unsmoothed) Toronto index* has declined a similar 7.9% over that period, though its condo segment is unchanged from July – all other types of housing taken together are down 10.4%. The index for neighbouring Hamilton has declined in six of the last seven months, for a cumulative 5.9% drop from its August peak. The Ottawa-Gatineau index has declined in five of the last six months and is down 2.4% from its September peak. The Calgary and Edmonton indexes are also down from six months ago.

Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index™

Because of the rise of the composite index from March to August last year, its reading for March 2018 was up 6.6% from a year earlier. This is the smallest 12-month rise since May 2016 and a ninth consecutive deceleration from the record 14.2% of last June. The March 12-month rise of the composite index was exceeded only by the indexes for Vancouver (15.4%) and Victoria (12.5%), which were followed by Halifax (6.1%), Hamilton (5.9%), Toronto (4.3%), Montreal (4.3%), Ottawa-Gatineau (3.0%), Winnipeg (2.9%), Calgary (0.4%) and Edmonton (0.2%). The Quebec City index was down 0.4% from a year earlier.

Indexes exist for seven Golden Horseshoe markets outside Toronto and Hamilton. Six of them – Barrie, Guelph, Brantford, Kitchener, St. Catharines and Oshawa – were down from last July, the exception being Peterborough. Indexes not included in the composite index also exist for seven markets outside the Golden Horseshoe, five of them in Ontario. Of the total of 14, 13 were up from a year earlier, with rises ranging from 4.4% in Barrie, Ont., to 25.3% in Abbotsford-Mission, B.C. The index for Sudbury was down 3.1% from a year earlier.

For the full report including historical data, please visit our website: housepriceindex.ca

*Note on methodology: The current-month data used to calculate the index are those of closed sales registered in the provincial land registry. To illustrate the home price trend, the published indexes of the 11 metropolitan markets entering into the Teranet–National Bank Composite House Price Index™ are moving averages of the last three months of raw indexes. This procedure evens out month-to-month fluctuations. More granular monthly data are available upon request, possibly subject to subscription fees. For further information about the methodology, please visit www.housepriceindex.ca

At the best of times, generating a property value can be challenging depending on the sales comps available. Often, your clients’ expectations can be out of alignment and they have a deep emotional attachment to their home. But as a real estate sales professional, there are certain factors you need to consider when determining property value. Are you valuing it too low and could get more money for the listing? Or too high and it won’t sell?

In a good housing market, these questions might be answered with time and experience, especially if you’ve been selling in a particular neighbourhood for many years and have a feel for the local real estate.

However, in a turbulent housing market, such as the one many experts agree Canada is currently experiencing, even the highest level of experience can make generating an appropriate list value nearly impossible.

Particularly if you are selling in a more volatile housing market, such as the Toronto real estate market, generating a property value is a difficult exercise. New mortgage rules, increasing interest rates, and the foreign buyers’ tax are just some of the new regulations that have been introduced in the past two years, which have shifted the market. And there could be more coming.

So, how can you cope? How can you adapt to an ever-shifting market and generate list values that are going to sell and earn you a profit?

The easiest, most accurate, and most reliable way is using technology.

Tools, such as GeoWarehouse’s Property Details Report, can provide an unbiased look at a property’s value. It can compile historic and current data to give you the very best overview. It contains valuable information about a property, including the Land Registry information, MPAC assessment data, property ownership information, sales history data, images of the property and more. This report can be used when determining a property’s market value and because it is completely customizable, it is a fantastic sales and research tool.

Another tool that can be of assistance when generating a property’s list value is GeoWarehouse’s Comparable Sales Report. This enables you to search for comparable sales in a particular area. You can perform a property search by radius, sales time-frame and price range. This report is an essential tool in your tool kit because it places the information that you need at your fingertips.

Generating a property value doesn’t have to be an exercise in futility. You can take out the guesswork with reliable, complete, and accurate tools, such as the GeoWarehouse reports. The information contained within can help you navigate even the most turbulent of real estate markets.

For more information on the Property Details Report and the Comparable Sales Report, or to register for GeoWarehouse, visit www.geowarehouse.ca.

Just like technology has increased efficiency with many different things — cellphones make staying in contact with others easier, ice machines built into fridges make having a cold drink easier, you can turn your TV on with your voice only — so, too is there a more efficient way of requesting condo status certificates.

The old process for requesting condo status certificates was:

A real estate sales professional or lawyer would request the condo status certificate from the condo corporation or management company in writing.

At the time of the request, payment for the administrative fee had to be made.

The property management company on behalf of the condo corporation may have taken up to 10 days to prepare the condo status certificate.

Once ready, the condo status certificate had to be retrieved from the condo corporation or property management company.

For seasoned real estate sales professionals, you know why there is value in obtaining the condo status certificate directly, but some newer agents rely on the lawyer to do this. A condo status certificate provides essential information about the financial status of the subject condo and other intelligence, such as whether or not the previous owner was up to date paying their condo fees, if there are increases in condo fees that are about to come into effect, and if there has been a lien placed on the condo for any reason. The old process was slow, inefficient, and often caused delays. Delays that could pose challenges for making the sale.

But there is a better way! Did you know that with tools such as GeoWarehouse you can request your condo certificates online?

New real estate technology, like the tools from GeoWarehouse, can speed up processes and ease frustration. In many cases, a condo status certificate can now be requested online through GeoWarehouse. Real estate sales professionals can request the condo status certificate online, make payment online using a major credit card, receive an email notification when the condo status certificate is ready, download an electronic file containing the condo status certificate, and then email it to the solicitor who is acting for the purchaser.

The end result? A simpler, more efficient process that is not only faster, but also means less work, less frustration, and less follow up for you to do, meaning you can focus more energy on other areas of your real estate business.

Obtaining a condo status certificate online through GeoWarehouse takes the pain out of going through the motions of obtaining a condo status certificate for your clients.

For more information about how you can obtain a condo status certificate online, please visit www.geowarehouse.ca or call 866-237-5937.